Reign of the Seven Spellblades is a special series of books. Unlike other stories where the authors give away a lot of information, this series keeps things mysterious. The second book continues this trend and assumes that you've read the first one, so it doesn't waste time going over everything again. But if it's been a while since you read the first book, it might be helpful to remember what Oliver's true purpose is. Don't worry if you can't remember everything, though, because the story is still interesting even if you don't remember all the details.
The story takes place at a magic school called Kimberly, where the characters go to learn. Six months have passed since the dangerous events of the first book, and things have started to calm down a bit. The characters are getting used to the school and learning how to stay safe from other students, mean teachers, and the school itself. But then something unexpected happens to Oliver's roommate, Pete. Pete wakes up one day and realizes that their body has changed—they are now a different gender. This is a big part of the story: some magical people can switch genders. Pete, who comes from a non-magical family, is surprised and upset by this. Oliver and the others help Pete through this confusing time. It's important to note that Pete still identifies as a boy, no matter what their body looks like. So, the book continues to use "he" and "him" for Pete. Another character in the story also changes genders and uses "they" and "them" pronouns. The book wants to show that people's gender identities are important. Pete being a different gender doesn't really change things for the friend group, but it does teach us about how magic works in the human body and how gender can affect that. Sometimes the book explains this in a way that feels a bit like someone talking too much, but it's because the teachers at Kimberly aren't trustworthy, and it's hard to find someone safe to explain things.
The problems Oliver faced with a bad teacher in the first book are still there, but they don't directly affect the plot this time. There's a new teacher, and another teacher who doesn't like Katie's idea that nonhuman magical creatures deserve rights. This teacher is mean, but they don't play a big role in the story. Their purpose is to remind us that the main characters have to figure things out on their own because the school is not a friendly place. In fact, the school is a dangerous place where teachers can hurt students. This connects to a challenge proposed by another student named Rossi. Rossi wants to find out who is the strongest, but there's more to it than just that. Rossi and another student named Albright are partly motivated by the prejudice against people from non-magical families like Nanao and Pete. But as the story goes on, we learn that things are more complicated than they seem. In the first book, we already learned about this prejudice, and now we see how the magical aristocracy adds to the problem. Chela's family is part of this aristocracy, and when her father and cousin come into the picture, we see how competition and the desire to keep their bloodlines "pure" can cause trouble in relationships. This directly affects the unhealthy situation at Kimberly. The author may sometimes make this point too obvious, but it helps us understand what Chela is going through and adds to the theme of equal rights that started in the first book.
The book doesn't waste time reminding us of what happened before, but sometimes it uses the same descriptions for characters too much. For example, it always mentions Chela and her father having curly hair. It also misspells "Asian" as "Azian" every time Nanao is mentioned, which can be annoying. On the other hand, the book describes the school well, so we can imagine what it looks like. But sometimes the way the characters talk can be a bit too exaggerated. Nanao might seem like a character that is too much like a stereotype, but it could be on purpose to show that they are different from the other characters.
Even though it has some problems, Reign of the Seven Spellblades is still an interesting series in the second book. It doesn't waste time going over what happened before, and it's darker than most magic school stories, but not too dark. The characters could be written better, but overall, it feels like its own unique story and not just another generic book. That's a good thing because it keeps us interested in what happens next.
